Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/69

 42 scorned the settled population; each tribe had cause of rivalry with its neighbour, and feuds were ever arising out of the law of blood. Now as well as later on there was also the mutual jealousy of the two cities of Mecca with its southern Arab population, and Medīna with its northern. Even in Medīna, cradle of the Faith, the Aus were impatient of the Khazraj and both were jealous of the Anṣār. The only authority recognised by a Bedawi is that of his tribal chief, and even that sits lightly. To him freedom is life; and dependence on a central power most hateful. If nothing external had supervened, he would soon have shaken off the yoke of Islām, and Arabia would have returned to its primeval state. But fortunately for Islām, a new idea electrified the nation. No sooner was apostasy put down than, first in Chaldæa and then in Syria, collision with wild border tribes kindled the fire of foreign war; and forthwith the whole Arabian people, both town and Bedawi, were riveted to Islām by a common bond—the love of rapine and the lust of spoil.

That the heritage of Islām is the world, was an after-thought. The idea, spite of much proleptic tradition, had been conceived but dimly, if at all, by Moḥammad himself. His world was Arabia, and for it the new Dispensation was ordained. The Revelation ran in "simple Arabic" for the teaching of its people. From first to last the summons was to Arabs and to them alone. It is true that some years before his death, Mohammad sent embassies to the Kings and Princes around him, calling on them to confess the faith of Islām; but the step was not in any way followed up. Nor was it otherwise with the command to fight against Jews, Christians, and Idolaters; that command as announced to the Arab tribes assembled at the Farewell pilgrimage, had reference to Arabia alone, and had no immediate bearing on warfare beyond its bounds. The Prophet's dying legacy was to the same effect:—"See," said he, "that there be but this one Faith throughout Arabia." The seed of a universal creed had indeed been sown; but that it ever germinated was due to circumstance rather than design. Even ʿOmar after splendid conquest everywhere, dreaded lest his armies should proceed too far, and be cut off